Alan Caruba's blog is a daily look at events, personalities, and issues from an independent point of view. Copyright, Alan Caruba, 2015. With attribution, posts may be shared. A permission request is welcome. Email acaruba@aol.com.

Sunday, August 10, 2014

Spectacularly Wrong

The
speaker had what one might imagine, given his background, a better insight into
Islam, Muslims, and the Middle East than others who had preceded him. He said
he was seeking “a new beginning” that was “based on mutual interests and mutual
respect” because his nation and those in the Middle East shared “common principles—principles
of justice and progress, tolerance and dignity of all human beings.”

He cited
“civilization’s debt to Islam” and noted that there were more than 1,200
mosques in this country. He declared that his nation would never be “at war with
Islam” and he quoted from “the holy Koran” several times during his speech.

Five years
later, noting the Islamic holiday of “Eid-al-Fitr” on July 28, he said “In the
United States, Eid also reminds us of the many achievements and contributions
of Muslim Americans to building the very fabric of our nation and strengthening
the core of our democracy,” but the U.S. did not elect its first
Muslim-American congressman until 2007. No Muslims took part in our founding.

At one
point he cited his nation’s “strong bonds with Israel” calling them
“unbreakable.” Noting the Holocaust in which six million Jews were killed, he
said that “Threatening Israel with destruction—or repeating vile stereotypes
about Jews is deeply wrong” but that he deemed the situation of Palestinians
“intolerable” adding that “Palestinians must abandon violence.” Noting his
opposition to Israeli settlements, he managed to be on both sides of the issues
that divide Israel and its Palestinian opponents.

Turning
his attention to Iran, he noted that “For many years, Iran has defined itself
in part by its opposition to my country”, citing reasons why Iranians felt
justified to feel that way. He also pointed out that Iran “has played a role in
acts of hostage-taking and violence” against U.S troops and civilians.”

“It is
clear to all concerned that when it comes to nuclear weapons, we have reached a
decisive point” and that preventing “a nuclear arms race in the Middle East
could lead this region and the world down a hugely dangerous path” adding that
“No single nation should pick and choose which nations have nuclear weapons.”
Presumably he was referring to Israel which would be directly threatened,
indeed destroyed, by an Iranian nuclear weapon.

While
noting the “controversy about the promotion of democracy in recent years” he
asserted that “No system of government can or should be imposed upon one nation
by any another” despite the fact that the U.S. invaded both Afghanistan and
Iraq specifically to impose new governments that would not threaten the U.S.
and its interests in the Middle East.

Citing
religious freedom, he said that “Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance” but
noted that “Among some Muslims, there is a disturbing tendency to measure one’s
own faith by the rejection of another’s”…and fault lines must be closed among
Muslims as well, as the divisions between Sunni and Shia have led to tragic
violence, particularly in Iraq.”

On August
7, after ignoring Iraqi and Kurdish requests for military aid in the form of
weapons to fight the Islamic State (IS) for months, in the wake of its attacks
on Christians in Iraq. the potential genocide of Yezidi men, women and children
driven from their homes, and an attack on Erbil where the U.S. has a consulate
and Baghdad where we have an embassy, he authorized “targeted military action in Iraq.”

He
concluded by noting that “It is easier to start wars than to end them”, but
Barack Obama, speaking in Cairo on June 4, 2009, mere months after having taken
office in his first term, said he believed “We have the power to make the world
we seek, but only if we have the courage to make a new beginning…”

His new
beginning was demonstrated by withdrawing all U.S. troops from Iraq and announcing the withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2015. The result
of that action, combined with doing nothing as the Islamic State of Iraq, Syria
and the Levant (ISIL) emerged from the Syrian civil war and severed the northern
portion of Iraq, adding it to the portion of Syria it controls, has left a
Middle East that faces a regional war with a fanatical Sunni Islamist entity.

With the
benefit of hindsight, we can see that Obama lacked an understanding of Islam,
history, and the Middle East. His Cairo speech became part of what
came to be known as his “apology tour” as he spoke in other nations, making it
clear that he thought the U.S. was the cause of many problems in the world and
that he was endowed with some special capacity to make things right again at
home and abroad.

The irony
of the speech is that it was spoken by a man for whom no leader in the Middle
East has any respect, putting the Prime Minister of Israel and the Supreme
Leader of Iran on the same page together. Add to them the leaders of virtually
all other nations. Obama thought he could dictate to Israel and could charm the
Iranians to make concessions. He was wrong.

Obama was
wrong about the Muslims that have been slaughtering Christians in the Middle
East and Africa and he has been largely silent about it. The leader of the
Islamic State that has captured a large swath of northern Iraq, Abu Bakral-Baghdadi, recently anointed himself “Caliph Ibrahim” and told his fellow
Muslims that jihad “is the duty on Muslims that has been lost for centuries.”

Obama was
wrong that no nation can impose a system of government on another when the
history of Islam has been its determination to impose Sharia law wherever it
gained power and the history of Communism that was its imposition in
Eastern Europe and elsewhere like Cuba until the collapse of the Soviet Union freed
its subjugated nations, though Cuba continues to be subject to the Castro
dictatorship.

These
days, Iran is still playing Obama for a fool while pursuing its quest to build
its own nuclear weapons. The Russian Federation has seized the Crimea from Ukraine.
Latin American nations are dumping their children into an America that has no
real border anymore.

Since he
gave that speech in 2009, the Middle East has seen the rise of the Islamic
State stretching from Syria to Iraq. Syria remains embroiled in a civil war.
The Palestinians are again attacking Israel. Iran is still intent on building
its own nuclear weapons. Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya have removed former
dictators and chaos is the order of the day in Libya.

If you
read Barack Obama’s Cairo speech from start to finish, you are likely to conclude that a self-deluded fool gave it, a man determined to
avoid confronting the enemies of mankind until an Islamic-inspired genocide
required it.

About Me

I am and have been for a long time a writer by profession. I have several books to my credit and my daily column, "Warning Signs", is disseminated on many Internet news and opinion websites, as well as blogs. In addition, I am a longtime book reviewer and have a blog offering a monthly report on new fiction and non-fiction.